“Pabandi hi baghawat ki shuruat hai
(Restriction is the starting block of rebellion),” says thevoiceover at the start of this film, while
commenting on prohibition in Gujarat. It is a simple line, yet so effective within
this story and in the larger current national context as India reels under bans,
prudishness, increasing censorship of the arts, eating habits and life choices,
and prohibition in states where governments are well aware of flourishing gray
markets.

This is the kind of
writing – straightforward and effective – with which writer-director Rahul
Dholakia kicks off Raees. Borne on
the shoulders of this screenplay, the first half of the film is taut, pacey, action
packed and utterly gripping. As the story takes us through little Raees’ early
interest in the illicitalcohol trade, shows us how deeply entrenched the
business is in the bylanes of his hometown such that children from ordinary
homes become natural collaborators of criminals, and recounts the manner in
which the adult Raees establishes himself as an ‘entrepreneur’ with political
connections and a social conscience, I found myself unable to take my eyes off the
screen for a single second.

The only
exasperating aspect of Raees up to
that point is that it seems like the heroine is being treated as a good-looking
side-show.
(As it turns out, she becomes important later, though her husband’s attitude
towards her is disquietingly misogynistic, his actions repeatedly verging on
violence. The film’s tolerance of his behaviour towards her and rose-tinted
view of his other crimes becomes disturbing as it rolls along.)

That said, the narrative in the
opening half is purposeful, single-minded in its desire to entertain us yet be
realistic to the extent that it is possible within the confines of conventional
Bollywood storytelling, and unapologetic about those goals.

So, Ram Sampath’s songs
are catchy, relevant to the storyline and well woven into the narrative. The
stunts are deliciously amusing in their improbability and heart-stoppingly
thrilling. And like every traditional Indian hero, like Bruce Willis, Harrison
Ford and Tom Cruise a few continents away, Shah Rukh Khan too emerges
miraculously more or less unscathed from every battering. It does not matter,
because Raees’ pre-interval storyline
remains packed, and it does not pretend to be anything but what it is: a
commercially driven entertainer.

The proceedings in
that half are unrelenting, leaving us with little time to ponder over why the
hero casually took to crime although there is nothing to suggest that he had no
choice or was a congenital psychopath; and skimming over his
questionable interpretation of his mother’s conviction, “Koi dhanda chhota nahin hota aur dhande se bada koi dharam nahin hota.”

Then comes the
second half and Raees loses its way. It
is hard to understand why so many writers and directors conceive and execute
their films in this fashion. Post-interval, Raees’
story boasts of limited depth, and tries to camouflage this failing with a
swagger. The beginning of the end comes with the song Zaalima mindlessly thrown into the narrative immediately after the
interval, and it goes downhill from there.

The sad part is
that Khan as the titular character is very convincing. SRK has looked graceful and dignified in his filmsstarting with Fan,
in which he has made no obvious effort to camouflage his age. It helps that he rocks
that beard. I do wish someone would remind him though that he looks so much nicer
romancing a heroine closer to him in years.

It has been a
pleasure in the past year or so to see Khan allowing the actor in him to
subsume the star. In this film, he strikes an uncommon balance between being
stylish, stylised and yet restrained.

Raees’ supporting cast is a roll call of some of
Bollywood’s finest character actors: Nawazuddin Siddique (yes that is how his
surname is spelt in the credits, not as Siddiqui) plays Raees’ bête noir, the
dogged policeman Jaideep Ambalal Majmudar, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub is in the
role of the hero’s loyal lieutenant Sadiq, Atul Kulkarni plays Raees’ first
boss Jairaj, and Narendra Jha his later business associate Moosa. Kulkarni gets
the first shot at one of the films most wolf-whistle-worthy lines (which is
later quoted by Raees): “Baniye ki dimaag
aur Miyabhai ki daring, dono hai iske paas.” Mahirah (spelling taken from the credits again) Khan – a star in
Pakistan, a debutant here – is naturally easy before the camera playing Raees’
girlfriend and later his wife.

Good actors need
good writing and editing on which to peg their craft though, and the
post-interval Raees seems not to know
where to go in these departments.

If only that
nuanced approach had
been carried into every other element of Raees’
post-interval storyline. Instead what we get is a matter-of-fact account of how
A happened in the hero’s life, then B, then C, then D, all the way to Z, with
no detailing, no surprises, too much music, too many close-ups, shots that
linger longer than they should, all in what seems like an effort to impress. This
is unexpected considering that Dholakia is the man
who gave us the deeply moving Parzania
(2007) based on the true story of a child who went missing in the 2002 Gujarat
riots.

Raees is rumoured to be based on the true story of the gangster Abdul Latifwho
operated in Gujarat in the 1980s and ’90s. From information available on the
Internet, there is a fascinating tale in there of his association with Dawood
Ibrahim and of the police-politician-underworld
nexus that allowed him to rise. This film scrapes the surface but fails to take
forward what lies beneath. Likewise, the potentially intriguing life-long
face-off in Raees between the hero
and Majmudar is well begun and could have been the fulcrum of the film, but
Majmudar becomes only an intermittent presence after a point. The hypocrisy of
governments that introduce prohibition, the politics of riots, the virtues of
vicious men all could have been beautifully studied in this film but are not.

The first half of Raees is supremely interesting and filled
with promise. Besides, Shah Rukh Khan is a joy to watch in this new,
exploratory innings of his career. The second half lets him down though. Style
trumping substance is rarely a good thing for a film.

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About Me

Anna MM Vetticad is an award-winning journalist, journalism teacher and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, an overview of the Hindi film industry presented through an account of a year in which she watched every single Bollywood film released in India’s National Capital Region. A journalist since 1994, she has worked with India Today, The Indian Express and Headlines Today. At HT she hosted her own interview show Star Trek which drew all India’s eminent entertainment personalities. While Anna has spent most of her career as a behind-the-scenes editorial person, she has also reported on most major Indian entertainment and lifestyle events and several international ones including Cannes and the Oscars, in addition to being the film critic for Headlines Today. She is currently reporting and writing for multiple publications on cinema and social issues with a focus on gender concerns. The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic is available on amazon.com, ebay.in, flipkart.com, ombooksinternational.com, ombooks.com, infibeam.com, homeshop18.com and dialabook.in among other websites, and in stores across India. Twitter: @annavetticad